


Remember This

by hops



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, IPRE Era, Kind of? Set right before the voidfishing, musing about implied canon?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 19:02:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11789454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hops/pseuds/hops
Summary: On the day before the Voidfish scatters their family, Barry spends time remembering on a familiar hillside.





	Remember This

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't stop thinking about how 1) Lup was in the cave with the gauntlet right after the last (most recent) glassing and 2) Barry and Taako were planning on checking out the site of the most recent glassing just before the mindwipe... They might have been getting very close to finding her. Also, the motif of hillsides and hands. 
> 
> Title is from "Slow Black River" by Iron & Wine. 
> 
> _Inside the tall grass meadow_  
>  _You'll forget, forget in time_  
>  _Remember this:_  
>  _Your hand in mine forever_

Barry plans to spend the afternoon searching the blackened remains of the most recent glassing for any sign of Lup, but he instead finds himself climbing a hill in tall grass and wildflowers, drawn by the familiarity of the sight. He remembers the year spent falling in love at the conservatory, the way she'd ran up the hill with his hand clutched tightly in her own. They didn't stop until they reached the top of the grassy hill. She kissed him among the swaying wildflowers and whispered to him over and over again,  _I love you, oh, I love you._ The sunset bathed her, brilliant, resplendent, in golds and oranges and pinks. They lay on the hillside together, hand in hand. 

He lays down in the grass and closes his eyes beneath the mid-day sun. The warmth of the day combined with the wind stirring softly above feels so familiar. His heart aches. He folds his hands over his chest. 

He has a good feeling about the coming days. The most recent glassing they could find means that Lup might be close. Despite his better sense, his heart skips a beat at the thought of seeing her again after so much time apart with so much worry. So little warning. 

He aches for a goodbye. Even just a chance to see her one more time. 

It feels like she's there with him, laying in the grass. 

He hears her laugh somewhere in the rustling of tall flowers and the quiet chitter of crickets. 

He doesn't know that months ago, she'd laid on her back in the same spot, waiting for the battle raging below to come to its abrupt halt with the gauntlet taking its last victims. She'd thought of Barry as she sat up beneath the same sun. The nostalgia of the breezy warmth on the grassy hill captivates her.  _Back soon,_ she'd promised to the wind, to the sun, to her brother, to Barry, and walked down the hill. 

They're so close. He can feel it.

His fingers find the note she left on the table that morning in his pocket.  _Back soon._ The grooves in the paper where she had pressed her pen feel familiar beneath his thumb. A long sigh leaves his lungs and casts to the wind. He stands up and goes down the hill. Today he'll search every inch of the broken obsidian town while Taako scopes out other places that would be best to check out tomorrow. 

The next day, they don't get a chance. The Voidfish devours their memories and, after begging a blank-eyed Taako, he loses his corporeal form. He looks but he doesn't find her. 


End file.
